Watched the newest DC Universe Animated movie last night. I'd only read part of the comic it was adapted from that reversed the death of Jason Todd and invalidated "A Death in the Family". I wasn't digging the movie at first, and I still think the plotting is nonsensical, but gradually I started to enjoy it and it turned out all right. There was plenty of Batlore worked in to keep me interested, the voice acting was good, the final morality play was intriguing, and the animation was really well done. Although I would still like to run Judd Winnick and his DC bosses over with the Batmobile for bringing Jason Todd back.

Originally posted by ScottyflamingoIs Batman's voice the same one from Crisis on Two Earth's? I REALLY didn't like that guy's voice work.

In this one, Bruce Greenwood (Captain Pike from Star Trek, most famously) is Batman, but he does such a good job impersonating Kevin Conroy that I didn't even notice it was a different guy doing the Batvoice at first.

As much as I loved the origin story DVD's like Green Lantern: First Flight and Wonder Woman, it's been great to get comic arcs adapted to DVD's. Personally, I would have adapted Hush before Under the Red Hood, but what's done is done.

I can't say I loved Bruce Greenwood's Batman, but I've just been overly spoiled by the incomparable Kevin Conroy at this point (who's reprising his role for the next DCU DVD, 'natch), so my opinion isn't really fair. I can say, however, that I wouldn't mind giving John DiMaggio a second go-around as the Joker. He was just brilliant.

This was a pretty decent adaptation to a comic story I personally find mediocre, so hooray for that, I guess. But looking down the line at what's coming up: Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (the adaptation of Jeph Loeb's "Supergirl" story that'll feature Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy reprising their roles) and All-Star Superman (Grant Morrison's awesome, awesome, AWESOME take on Superman), it's a GREAT time to jump on board these DVD's.

I personally hope the trend of adapting comic arcs into full-blown direct-to-DVD movies continues and would much rather see DC continue in that direction, rather than go down Marvel's current path of DVD motion comics. (But don't get me wrong, I'll be picking up Astonishing X-Men on DVD September 29th, too)

EDIT: And now a series of DC Shorts has been confirmed for a December release, featuring the previously-packaged Spectre, Jonah Hex, and Green Arrow shorts and the all-new 22-minute short, "Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam" with George Newbern and Jerry O'Connell reprising their JLU roles as Superman and Captain Marvel, respectively, and Arnold Vosloo as Black Adam! I'd have killed for Vosloo (Imhotep from the "Mummy" films) to play the LIVE Black Adam, but I'll take what I can get.